Kenya Environmental & Political News Weblog

• Insecurity Heightens Poverty in Northwest Kenya

  Posted: July 31, 2008, 10:55 am by Phil

  Photo: Ann Weru/IRIN Residents often have to rely on police reservists and have organised local security to safeguard their livestock LODWAR, 29 July 2008 (IRIN) - John Lochimoe used to own several heads of cattle that his grandfather left him, until raiders from the neighbouring Pokot District of northwestern Kenya took the animals. “All the cows [...]

• Kiambaa IDPs Still Afraid to Return Home

  Posted: July 31, 2008, 10:54 am by Phil

  Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN Stephen Kariuki Gichuhi, chairman of the IDPs who have sought shelter at the Ngecha All Nations Gospel Church in Limuru LIMURU, 30 July 2008 (IRIN) - Hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled Kenya’s Rift Valley Province after their church was set ablaze in January’s post-election violence, burning to death some of [...]

• The Connection Between High Food Prices and Grand Corruption

  Posted: July 29, 2008, 6:59 pm by Phil

  Bunge La Mwananchi held a forum on Wednesday 2nd July, 2008 at Professional Centre Nairobi, between 1.00 pm and 5.00 pm. as part of its civil awareness initiative to rally people around issues that affect them. Bunge La Mwananchi had in the recent past organised an activity in which Kenyans held street protest to complain [...]

• Investigate “torture” in Mt Elgon Operation, Kenya Govt Urged

  Posted: July 29, 2008, 6:57 pm by Phil

  Photo: Ann Weru/IRIN People displaced by the conflict in Mt Elgon are slowly returning home. HRW says the government must investigate claims of torture NAIROBI, 28 July 2008 (IRIN) - A public inquiry should be set up into “torture and war crimes” committed by the Sabaot Land Defence Forces (SLDF) militia and the military in [...]

• Cholera Outbreaks in W. Kenya Blamed on Contaminated Water

  Posted: July 29, 2008, 6:56 pm by Phil

  Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN Drinking contaminated water is one of the main causes of cholera NAIROBI, 29 July 2008 (IRIN) - Recurrent outbreaks of cholera in the western province of Nyanza are caused by widespread water contamination, including seepage from latrines, health officials said. “The major contributor to the recent outbreaks in the area was unsafe water,” [...]

• More Education Equals Less Teen Pregnancy and HIV

  Posted: July 26, 2008, 1:11 pm by Phil

  Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN Girls who stay in school are less likely to contract HIV NAIROBI, 25 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Keeping Kenyan girls in school and ensuring they have access to HIV and sex education has a dramatic effect on lowering future levels of HIV, according to experts. “Young people do not have the information they [...]

• PMTCT Services not Reaching Rural Women in Kenya

  Posted: July 26, 2008, 1:11 pm by Phil

  Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN Many of the women are unaware of their status ISIOLO, 24 July 2008 (PlusNews) - The government’s campaign to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child is failing pregnant HIV-positive women in Kenya’s remote rural areas. A shortage of testing sites and trained medical staff in rural areas means many of these women [...]

• No Substitute for Support When Taking ARVs

  Posted: July 26, 2008, 1:07 pm by Phil

  Photo: Waweru Mugo/IRIN “They know where the shoe pinches most” MERU, 16 July 2008 (PlusNews) - “We [people living with HIV] must eat well, must keep off stress - it is not good for you … if you can, please walk out on anything annoying and go and watch Vitimbi [a popular TV sitcom] or [...]

• Q&A: How Not to Resettle IDPs

  Posted: July 23, 2008, 3:48 pm by Phil

  Interview with Prisca Kamungi, Director of the Internal Displacement Policy and Advocacy Centre NAIROBI, Jul 22 (IPS) - Operation Rudi Nyumbani (Return Home, in Kiswahili), designed to help about 350,000 IDPs living in camps across the country go back to their homes and farms has achieved its primary objective, at least according to the Kenyan government. [...]

• Hundreds Still Displaced in Nairobi

  Posted: July 23, 2008, 3:02 pm by Phil

  Photo: Allan Gichigi/IRIN IDPs at the Mathare Chief’s camp in Nairobi. NAIROBI, 22 July 2008 (IRIN) - Hundreds of Kenyans displaced during post-election violence in early 2008 in the capital, Nairobi, are still in camps more than two months after the government launched a countrywide resettlement programme. “Many of the displaced were tenants whose houses [...]

• Mau Forest Destruction Will Cost the Kenya Economy US$300M

  Posted: July 19, 2008, 2:39 pm by Phil

  Protecting Mau Forest in Kenya’s Economic Interest Nairobi, 17 July 2008-Kenya stands to lose a nature-based economic asset worth over US $300 million alone to the tea, tourism and energy sectors if the forest of the Mau Complex continues to be degraded and destroyed, the UN Environment Programme said today. The Prime Minister of Kenya, Raila [...]

• Tackling Corruption in Humanitarian Intervention

  Posted: July 19, 2008, 2:39 pm by Phil

  Photo: Anthony Morland/IRIN Bribe taking: A new report urges humanitarian agencies to work harder and more closely together to minimise various forms of corruption that can affect the delivery of emergency aid NAIROBI, 18 July 2008 (IRIN) - Humanitarian agencies should work harder and more closely together to minimise various forms of corruption that can [...]

• Healthcare Hurdles in Nairobi’s Slums

  Posted: July 11, 2008, 10:26 pm by Phil

  Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN Slums are underserved in terms of access to basic amenities NAIROBI, 11 July 2008 (IRIN) - Quality healthcare is a luxury often beyond the reach of those who live in Nairobi’s slums, such as mother-of-seven Grace Awour Opondo. “When you are sick you buy medicine from the local shops,” Opondo told IRIN. “If [...]

• Post-Violence Sex Work Boom in Kenya

  Posted: July 11, 2008, 9:56 pm by Phil

  Photo: Eva-Lotta Jansson/IRIN Desperation limits your options MOMBASA, 9 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Like thousands of other Kenyans, Susan Wairimu, 17, was displaced from her home in the Rift Valley Province’s Molo district during the violence that followed a disputed presidential election in December 2007 and sought shelter in the nearby town of Nakuru. A cousin [...]

• UN Opens 1st Zero Emission Community Power Centre in Rural Kenya

  Posted: July 9, 2008, 6:01 pm by Phil

  8 July 2008 – The first power-generating centre using environmentally friendly hydro and solar power has been inaugurated in a Kenyan village 150 kilometres north east of Nairobi by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Apart from generating electricity, the new centre, in Kibai village in Kenya’s Kerugoya division, promotes the use of Light Emitting [...]

• Courting Disaster: Why Kenyans Must Stop Oloolua Nuclear Waste Plant

  Posted: July 9, 2008, 5:59 pm by Phil

  Kenya is a few days away from hosting the first ever dreaded and less understood radioactive waste processing facility at Oloolua, located at the institute of primate research in Kajiado district. If the facility is allowed to proceed, Kenyans will without doubt pay dearly, in the same way history is certain to harshly judge the [...]

• New Kenya Law Could Raise Food Prices Further

  Posted: July 8, 2008, 11:52 am by Phil

  Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN Some of the products, with the standardization mark, on a supermarket shelf NAIROBI, 4 July 2008 (IRIN) - Prices of food in Kenya, which have already risen by 50 percent since the start of 2008, could increase further following a new government regulation, a consumer watch group has warned. From October, all food [...]

• Kenya IDPs Hold Out for Better Compensation

  Posted: July 8, 2008, 11:50 am by Phil

  Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN IDPs are choosing to remain in the camps in the hope of a better government compensation package NAKURU, 7 July 2008 (IRIN) - Jane Wanjiru Maina, a mother of seven, is tired of living in an internally displaced people’s (IDP) camp in the show grounds of Nakuru, in the Rift Valley. “The tents [...]

• Climate Challenge to Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Africa

  Posted: July 3, 2008, 1:24 pm by Phil

  The challenge of meeting the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in African countries is compounded by the grave long-term risk posed by climate change. That is the message of a report released today by the United Nations and the African Union. African countries demonstrably require additional resources for adaptation since they are particularly vulnerable to the [...]

• Kenya IDPs: Nicholas Nyanumba: “We voted but our leaders are not helping us”

  Posted: July 3, 2008, 1:22 pm by Phil

  Photo: Ann Weru/IRIN Nicholas Nyanumba believes the government’s compensation plan is inadequate NAKURU, 2 July 2008 (IRIN) - Nicholas Nyanumba is one of 12,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) living in a temporary camp set up in the show grounds of the Rift Valley town of Nakuru. Nyanumba was displaced when fighting broke out in his hometown [...]

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Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

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The end of the fish cakes